Chapter 4: The Mistress Finds Her Way to the Door

  The next morning, the young man got up early to open the door. As soon as he removed a plank from the door and took a look outside, he jumped up and ran towards the back hall while shouting: "Boss's wife, come quickly!"

  Liu Cuicui didn't sleep well last night, and now she's holding her cheek in front of the mirror, looking annoyed. Suddenly, a young man startled her, and she immediately became angry, hastily throwing on some clothes to go downstairs. As she walked, she scolded: "You're courting death! Wailing at dawn..."

  The young fellow couldn't explain what was happening outside, he just kept pointing to the door with his hand. Liu Cuicui walked to the entrance and took a look, she was also startled: there were four or five cars parked on the road, and at the entrance of the store, two rows of more than ten young men stood neatly, each one strong and spirited, interestingly, the row on the left wore long shirts, while the row on the right wore suits, a combination of Chinese and Western styles, and they all had bulges around their waists, as if they were carrying something.

  These people surrounded a stately and elegant young woman who looked under 20 years old. On the left hand of the young woman was an elderly man dressed as a steward, and on the right side was a 15 or 16-year-old, pointed chin thin lips beautiful little maid, who also seemed to be a difficult master.

  Liu Cuicui was also considered to have seen the world, so she deliberately put on a disapproving expression and called out to the shopkeeper to remove the signboard and open for business. The young woman couldn't help but feel uneasy, as if she thought it beneath her dignity to speak with someone like Liu Cuicui. She nodded at the steward instead, who immediately understood and stepped forward to say to Liu Cuicui, "I heard that Mr. Cheng Ziqiang is staying here."

  Liu Cuicui was taken aback for a moment, then remembered the name that Ku Lixiang had written down when he reported his number and registered. Later, Ku Lixiang had been calling out for so long that she almost forgot that Cheng Ziqiang was actually his alias. These people must be Ku Lixiang's family members, looking at their lineup, they were several grades higher than ordinary wealthy families.

  Thinking of this, Liu Cuicui took a few more glances at the young woman. The young woman was actually quite ordinary in appearance, but with her gold and silver jewelry, she had gained a lot of poise. However, her attitude of looking down on everyone made Liu Cuicui extremely angry. "No wonder Suliang would rather be a laborer than return home, it's because he has someone like you at home." Thinking this in her heart, her chest puffed out involuntarily, and the flirtatious look in her eyes increased. In short, she wanted to show off her feminine charm in front of this legitimate young mistress. The young woman saw this and added a few more points to her contemptuous gaze, but Liu Cuicui didn't think much of it. Instead, she felt a few points of pride in her heart - my eyes are bigger than yours, my chest is perkier than yours, my waist is slimmer than yours. No matter how much gold and silver you wear, what can you do?

  Liu Cuicui thought so, but also felt a little down because Kuliang had already had a wife. She couldn't help but take another look at the young woman's waist and buttocks, and found that this woman was just dressed up as a married woman, clearly not having been with a man before. In her heart, she laughed: "It turns out that nobody even wants to touch you... hehehe..."

  That old steward saw Liu Cuicui and didn't say a word, just kept himself there with a faint smile, and said: "Boss's wife? Mr. Cheng Ziqiang is our young master, if he lives here, can you take us to his residence?"

  Liu Cuicui suddenly came to her senses and, without bothering with formalities, turned around and ran towards the backyard. When she arrived at the backyard, she pushed open the door while saying: "Kuli Qiang, run quickly! Your wife has come to catch you!"

  Only when he pushed open the door did he see that the room was already empty. Ku Liqiang had long since left.

  A group of people couldn't find Ku Liqiang, so the old steward left two young men wearing long shirts to guard the store, presumably for fear that someone would inform Cheng Ziqiang. The rest of the people got into a car and left.

  Liu Cuicui was happy that these people couldn't find Kulaiqiang, but at the same time she felt depressed about Kulaiqiang's sudden departure. Her emotions were mixed together, and with two silent and eerie men sitting in the house only drinking clear tea, she became even more flustered and made several mistakes while calculating the bill.

  It's not just Liu Cuicui whose heart is in a mess today, the whole street is also in chaos. Liu Cuicui was annoyed by the people running around and shouting on the street, so she sent her apprentice out to ask what was going on. The result was that the apprentice came back saying that it was the Japanese in the city who were causing trouble, chasing and killing people with their eastern swords, and setting fires everywhere.

  Actually, the Japanese causing trouble is nothing new. Not just in Linhai City, but also in the four eastern provinces, which day don't they cause a few disturbances? And the governor of the four eastern provinces always spoils the Japanese, saying that he's afraid of triggering international disputes, and that we Chinese are a nation of etiquette, so we shouldn't bother with these "small matters". As a result, when the Japanese cause trouble, the police don't dare to intervene. Not only do they not intervene, but they also hide and don't come out until the Japanese have had enough, then they carefully come out to clean up the aftermath. Suffering laborer Grass Head Snake once joked: "If Japan were as reasonable as this governor, it would be great! We could go to Japan and set fires, rob guns and things, but I'm afraid they wouldn't be afraid of triggering international disputes, and they'd shoot me dead on the spot!" Seeing the chaos outside getting worse, Liu Cuicui couldn't help but worry about her son who was studying at a Japanese school in the East, and secretly regretted sending her son to a den of wolves.

  Although Liu Cuicui's little husband ran away without a trace after reading two days of foreign books, Liu Cuicui still believed that men should first cultivate themselves and learn etiquette before establishing their careers. The old-fashioned school was considered outdated, and one could not learn any real skills there except for posting couplets during the Spring Festival. However, the Japanese school, which was also known as the "Wa people's" school, had a teaching level that was not inferior to that of the Westerners, but the tuition fees were much cheaper, and they even offered preferential treatment to Asian students. This made Liu Cuicui choose the Japanese school for her son.

  Every day, when the son comes back, he often says that he is often bullied by Japanese classmates at school. This time, looking at the situation, the Japanese are making a bigger fuss than ever before, and it's unknown whether it will affect the school or not. For now, there is no good solution to come up with, so I secretly arranged for a partner to stand at the street corner to observe the situation, and instructed other partners to be ready to close the door at any time. To prevent unexpected situations, Liu Cuicui also asked her partners to take out dozens of hoes stored in the backyard and place them behind the counter. Originally, these hoes were prepared for sale to passing laborers who are struggling to make a living, but it seems that they will be used as self-defense weapons first.

  Anxiously waiting for more than an hour, seeing the street getting increasingly chaotic, Liu Cuicui felt it was better to clear out the customers and close the door. In fact, amidst this chaotic situation, there were only a few customers in the store. Those two men wearing long shirts sitting in the corner, no matter what, remained as calm as Mount Tai, just letting them be.

  Just as they had put up two planks, several people suddenly rushed in from outside the door. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be the comrades who had been sent to the street corner to gather information earlier, and Xiao Shunzi and Cao Toushe who had gone to the slave market to work that morning.

  Cao Tou She and Xiao Shun Zi, covered in bloodstains, panting heavily as soon as they entered the door, shouted that they were thirsty. Liu Cui Cui hastily poured a large bowl of hot tea for them. Cao Tou She was impatient, and as soon as he came up, he scalded his tongue, complaining: "My elder sister, this won't let the Japanese devils kill us, but first you'll scald us to death."

  Liu Cuicui said: "You're all out of breath, aren't you afraid of drinking to the point of bursting your lungs? What's with the blood on your bodies?"

  Xiao Shunzi was about to speak, but Cao Tou She said with a bitter face: "At least you should give us some cool water or something warm. We're both fine, this blood isn't ours."

  Liu Cuicui let out a sigh of relief, and while pouring water, asked: "What's the situation outside?" As soon as she asked this, several other lodgers who had not yet gone out also gathered around.

  Cao Tou She saw himself becoming the focus, and he felt a bit pleased in his heart. He first raised his neck and drank more than half of the warm tea in the bowl, then said to Liu Cui: "Add some hot water." Then he filled a pot with tobacco, and someone next to him quickly lit it for him.

  But he hadn't even finished his sentence when Liu Cuicui slapped him on the back of the head and scolded, "What's wrong with you? Why didn't you kill the Japanese devil? If you don't say it, I'll let Xiao Shunzi say it."

  "Wait for me to catch my breath." Cao Tou She said with a smile: "Today, it's really quite evil." He took a drag on his cigarette: "Today is really quite evil. Early this morning when I went to the market with Xiao Shunzi, I felt something was off. We're by the sea and we see these foreigners all the time, but today they were really sinister. Each one had a knife or sword, with white cloth tied around their foreheads, as if they had a vendetta against us. Their eyes were bloodshot..."

  A lodger interrupted and asked: "Then who invited them?"

  "With a raised eyebrow, he said: 'How would I know? Ask them yourself.'"

  Another house guest was eager to know the situation outside and blamed his companion, saying: "What are you talking nonsense about?" Then he flattered the grass-headed snake, saying: "You continue to tell us."

  The grass head snake gave a white eye to the tenant who had just interrupted him, took a sip of tea, and puffed on his cigarette before continuing.